Communication systems, and especially wireless communication systems, are becoming more sophisticated, offering consumers improved functionality to communicate with one another. Such increased functionality has been particularly useful in the automotive arena, and vehicles are now being equipped with communication systems with improved audio (voice) wireless communication capabilities. For example, On Star™ is a well-known communication system currently employed in vehicles, and allows vehicle occupants to establish a telephone call with others (such as a service center) by activating a switch with a hand/finger.
As is known, the user interface can contain one or more hand/finger switches to engage various communication features that the user interface provides. For example, such buttons may be used as the push-to-talk button for the communications system, or may be used to select various communication options and features. Such buttons, however, are usually placed in locations within the vehicle where they are easily accessible by a hand of the user. Thus, certain buttons may be placed on the console near the front passengers, or they may be placed on a steering wheel so that the driver will not need to have his hands leave the wheel to engage the communications system. For example, in a prior art Cadillac CTS automobile, the steering wheel contains user interface buttons that are programmable. In this way, a user or driver of the vehicle can program various buttons to achieve various options.
However, such a solution is still not ideal. As vehicle-based communications become more complicated, a user or driver of the vehicle will be provided many different communication options. For example, the interface may contain a push-to-talk button, phone call answer/end, voice recognition activation, speaker mute/unmute, etc., as well as other buttons that may be used to tailor communications, such as are disclosed in the above-referenced related applications, all of which are filed concurrently herewith incorporated by reference herein their entireties. In short, as vehicle communications become more powerful, a user will be required to keep track of and press more and more buttons on their user interfaces. This disclosure presents a solution to this problem.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.